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NevOnNevOn is the archive weblog of Neville Hobson, a British business communicator based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, a record of commentary and conversations from December 2002 until 22 February 2006. This site is no longer updated - please visit www.nevillehobson.com.

13 November 2004

Disappointing IABC blog

Two fellow IABC members and bloggers, Shel Holtz and Allan Jenkins, have commented about the lengthy gap between posts by IABC Chair David Kistle on the IABC Chair blog launched last month.

It is so - David's last post was on 24 October, nearly three weeks ago. Since the blog launched on 7 October, there have been just three posts.

As IABC Chair, David Kistle is fronting a professional association in a volunteer capacity; he does have a day job. That could be one reason why he's not posted commentary more frequently: lack of time or availability. I would expect posts at least once a week, so it has been particularly disappointing to see such infrequency. My disappointment has been the greater when I see the flow of comments to David's posts that sort of dry up. There's no continuing content to keep momentum going (so I'm wondering what the visitor stats now look like to this blog).

The blog does have potential to help drive forward one of IABC's key strategic objectives: increased visibility - "Through the media, participation in expert panels and business forums, and speaking platforms, IABC has a huge opportunity to build awareness and understanding of the important contribution that IABC and its members make to the profession."

To this end, one suggestion I have for David is to open up the blog to a guest poster, another member of IABC's Executive Board, who can help keep the momentum going. If the blog has great content, that should help develop it into a place that IABC members and other communicators want to come back to, and get some interesting conversations going about IABC, the communication profession and whatever related topic that people are interested in.

Comments

I have another suggestion. You just mentioned three IABC members that are bloggers - you, Shel and Allan. How hard would it be to link to your three blogs. Right now, the only link is back to the IABC home page.

Or, to take your idea one step further on the executive board blogging. How about opening it to members of local chapters? There you have a potential base that can bring up issues on the local level.

I agree with you re linking. Not only what you suggest, but also local Chapter websites including a link to the blog.

It's actually interesting if you look at how the blog is referred to on the IABC website. The descriptor says: "Read the Chairman's Blog. David Kistle, ABC, shares his thoughts in a new weblog."

To anyone who is not sure of what a blog is (which seems to be a big percentage of the IABC membership), that statement gives you no clue at all as to why you should read the blog. It should say something like: "Share your thoughts with IABC Chair David Kistle at the new weblog - the place to go for interesting conversations" or something like that.

As for opening the blog up to local Chapters, I don't think that is workable for the blog as it currently is. It is called the Chair's blog, so the expectation is that you're going to see stuff posted by, well, the Chair. Maybe it would have been better focused as, say, the IABC Leader blog. That would give considerable leeway to who can post.

IABC could start by making "trackbacks" obvious on the blog. I've tracked-back both times I have written about the IABC Chairman's blog, even though I realize that it will not show up. I just think it's a duty.

It could be that IABC does not want it to be known who is tracking back ... excessive nervousness, perhaps? ... but since trackback pings can be cancelled, and IP addresses blocked, this seems more cautious than necessary.

As far as I know, when you trackback to a blog that accepts trackback pings, it's automatic that the trackbacked post updates itself to show the link. But not in the IABC blog case. Maybe it's a setting in the WordPress application.